The Haydn Green Charitable Trust has donated £1.5million to The University of Nottingham to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.

The substantial gift will build on the achievements of the University’s Institute for Enterprise and Innovation (UNIEI), which since its launch in 2000 has become a key national centre for entrepreneurship education.

UNIEI was founded at Nottingham University Business School and now helps hundreds of students every year – at undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA level – to develop the entrepreneurial skills that will enable them to thrive as business leaders. The gift of £1.5m will build and develop that work in the years to come.

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In honour of the endowment, UNIEI is to be re-named The Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Celebration of entrepreneurship

Dr Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business Innovation & Skills, will join Trustees of the Charity and other special guests at a celebration event on the University’s Jubilee Campus on Monday 18 February, from 2pm-2.45pm.

The gift will be presented to the University by Hardev Singh, on behalf of the trustees of The Haydn Green Charitable Trust.

Mr Singh said: “The Haydn Green Charitable Trust has been set up by its trustees in the loving memory of the late Haydn Carrick Green, who passed away suddenly in 2007. Haydn was a successful Nottingham businessman, whose entrepreneurial flair brought innovative financial products to the market.

“The trustees believe that they must also help to build innovative and entrepreneurial structures within charitable or voluntary sectors by collaborating or by providing financial assistance to those organisations, which are working towards similar goals.

“By launching the ‘Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ under the leadership of The University of Nottingham, the trustees are confident that this institute will continue to further the mission of the University by providing a truly international education, inspiring the students, producing world-leading research and benefitting the community with bold innovation and by encouraging excellence in entrepreneurship, which will help to improve life for the individuals and societies in the UK and worldwide.

“The Trustees are also very grateful to Professor Nathu Ram Puri of The Puri Foundation for the invaluable advice and tremendous effort he has put in to help us and The University of Nottingham to launch this Institute, after all The Puri Foundation has tremendous experience of setting up structures to help others.”

Professor Puri, Honorary Freeman of the City of Nottingham, said: “Haydn was a dear friend and I am delighted to help and advise the Trustees. I was already in discussions with the University for a similar initiative and was pleased for it to be taken up by the Haydn Green Charitable Trust.”

Professor Puri said that The Puri Foundation, which has launched a similar Institute before, will continue to encourage other similar organisations to come forward and support similar initiatives, which will bring growth and prosperity to the region and nationally.

Building capacity

The endowment will allow the Institute to build its education programmes and research to benefit both students and the regional business community, meeting a key Government agenda by helping to develop entrepreneurial skills.

The University is currently engaged in its biggest-ever fundraising campaign. Impact: The Nottingham Campaign is delivering the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future.

Professor David Greenaway, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Nottingham, said: “We are proud to be associated with the Haydn Green Charitable Trust, and delighted they wish to collaborate with the University to develop the Haydn Green Institute. The Trust joins a very special group of benefactors who have helped to transform the impact our University is having. This generous gift will ensure we continue to improve on the outstanding programmes and opportunities offered through UNIEI.”

Dr Vince Cable MP will unveil a plaque in the Sir Colin Campbell Building to recognise the generosity of the Haydn Green Charitable Trust.

Based in Nottingham University Business School, UNIEI was launched in 2000 by Professor Martin Binks, with support from the Department of Trade and Industry and the East Midlands Development Agency.

Professor Binks is now Dean of the Business School and has led entrepreneurship education that includes a popular MBA in Entrepreneurship, MSc, numerous cross-disciplinary MSc Entrepreneurship programmes in the University; as well as thriving undergraduate entrepreneurship programmes in the UK, China, Malaysia that involve the support of business people and entrepreneurs who mentor hundreds of Nottingham undergraduates every year.

Professor Binks said: “The resources generated by this donation will enable the Institute, the Business School, and the University to broaden and deepen the development of entrepreneurial skills that are so important in today’s economy. This will encourage innovation and growth in the short, medium, and long term both regionally and nationally.”

Notes to editors: The University of Nottinghamhas 42,000 students at award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia. It was ‘one of the first to embrace a truly international approach to higher education’, according to the Sunday Times University Guide 2013. It is also one of the most popular universities among graduate employers, one of the world’s greenest universities, and winner of the Times Higher Education Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development’. It is ranked in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 75 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong and the QS World Rankings.

More than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise. The University aims to be recognised around the world for its signature contributions, especially in global food security, energy & sustainability, and health. The University won a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education for its research into global food security.